National poll: Clinton up 12 percentage points on Trump

Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by double digits, according to a national Bloomberg Politics poll released Tuesday.

Clinton tops the general election poll against Trump and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee, with 49 percent support among likely voters. Trump has 37 percent support, and Johnson has 9 percent support, with 4 percent undecided. Just 1 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t vote for any of the candidates.

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An overwhelming 55 percent of respondents whose first choice isn’t Trump said they would never vote for the real estate mogul. Forty-three percent of respondents whose first choice isn’t Clinton said they could never support the former secretary of state.

Johnson’s never rating hovers around Clinton’s at 44 percent, but 25 percent said they’re unsure about whether they could ever support the Libertarian candidate. In contrast, just 2 percent were unsure about supporting Clinton, and only 1 percent about backing Trump.

While Clinton has assumed the title of presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has vowed to continue his campaign through next month’s convention in Philadelphia.

Clinton holds a narrow 2-point lead over Sanders among Democrats and independents who were asked which candidate they favor. Eleven percent said neither, and just 1 percent were undecided.

Trump faced intense criticism from Democrats and even fellow Republicans for suggesting that an American judge presiding over class-action lawsuits against Trump University couldn’t do his job, given that his parents are from Mexico and Trump has pledged to build a wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for.

Likely voters expect more of the same from the businessman, who in recent days has increasingly relied on teleprompters in an apparent attempt to be more presidential, as Republican leaders have called for. The poll was conducted June 10-13, following a week of controversy over Trump's attack on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

Sixty-four percent told Bloomberg that Trump will continue to say things that upset Republicans, while 3 in 10 said Trump will tone down his controversial rhetoric.

Similarly, 6 in10 likely voters said Clinton will continue to face a federal investigation into her email practices and private server during her tenure as secretary of state. Thirty-five percent said they believe the issue will be put to rest before the November election.

The poll was partly conducted in the wake of the Orlando massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in American history. A gunman fired shots into an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, killing 49 people and injuring 53 more before he was shot dead.

Likely voters named Trump the best candidate to combat terrorist threats both at home and abroad (50 percent, to 45 percent for Clinton) and specifically, when asked who they would have more confidence in to deal with another mass shooting, voters gave the edge to Trump over Clinton, 45 percent to 41 percent.

But voters indicated that they overwhelmingly disagree with some anti-Muslim rhetoric from Republicans. Nearly 70 percent disagreed that law enforcement should increase surveillance of American Muslims. Sixty-one percent disagreed that “Obama has not taken forceful action to stop domestic terrorism because he sides with Muslims.”

Voters were largely split on issues of gun control — 48 percent said the U.S. should ban the sale of semi-automatic or automatic rifles to civilians; 50 percent disagreed — and the use of the term “radical Islam” — 47 percent said avoiding the term makes the U.S. look weak in the fight against terrorism; 44 percent disagreed.

The survey of 750 likely general election voters was conducted June 10-13. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.